Embroidery

Wanted to share a side project I've been working on.  I've been doing embroidery for my Viking costume for the SCA, and it's been fun to do!

The top picture is my device, an eight-pointed Melchizedek's seal with a circle and a triskelion within. The bottom one is more of a Celtic design rather than Viking. I've been doing some research into different styles of Viking art and will attempt to incorporate more traditional stuff into my costume.

I went to a SCA event this past weekend, wherein I participated in a "hunt" and got to shoot targets with my bow. I've never competed with archery, and it was super fun! I also didn't realize how accurate I was with my bow either, so that was cool to see.

Books!

There's so much I've wanted to do with my writing, but one of my big focuses has been revising Book 4 of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Key. I had intended on finishing In Chaos Forged before doing other major stuff, but my heart has been set on Legacy Incarnate, especially now that I intend to add 2 more books to the series to round it out better. I've gone back and forth between Incarnate Key and ICF, and I have so many fun and great ideas for both stories.

Have a nice one.

Hthelath, the Guardian

A little update and art to share with everyone. I've been focusing on a couple of editing and revision projects at once, but I won't announce what they are at the moment. I've been all over the place with my projects, since I've wanted to work on multiple ones with very little extra time. However, they're slowly coming along.

Below is a rarity of art from me, as I don't do inked pictures a lot anymore. This is a character that appears in Book IV of the Legacy Incarnate. He doesn't really have a definite form, and instead takes on a few different forms. He's made out of millions of magic bubbles filled with light. Of course, it was difficult for me to get that image across with just ink and paper, but I'm still happy with how this piece turned out, especially considering this is the first time I've drawn Hthelath.

As far as life goes, I've enjoyed being a full-time mom. It's an interesting experience learning to teach children on the go, although I've had some help along the way. My sons bring me such joy, and having our family together for all eternity is wonderful to think about.

There's been times where I've been afraid of monotony, and I've felt it, but I'm branching out and trying new things so that I'll have a life for myself alongside the life I dedicate to my family. Lately something I've been gearing up for is the Society of Creative Anachronism, or SCA. It's an educational live role-play society that's found all over the world. The focus is on medieval cultures and dress, and I've chosen to do a Viking persona as a way to connect with my Scandinavian ancestry. I've been gathering materials for an apron dress, and with some help, I hope to get the costume together for Halloween. In this process I've learned a little bit about the Vikings themselves.

Hope you enjoyed the art!

I WILL survive

Hello readers! I have survived my second pregnancy and we've been blessed with a beautiful little boy. It's been stressful and a little crazy these last few weeks, but I'm grateful to be recovering quickly. The labor and delivery was low-stress, and that made it easier on my body than my first pregnancy.

Anywho, you didn't come here to read about how my body's doing. I've jumped back into writing, and lately have been putting a lot of effort into finishing a short story I started some time ago. I've been thinking more about doing an anthology of Libera stories, partly as a way to put myself out there more with potential readers and publishing venues. I've been jumping between stories a lot lately, as I found it hard to concentrate on just one story with my low energy levels. Weird.

I also have some art I'd like to share. I shared it on my personal Facebook page weeks ago, but it's time I publish it here.

Our favorite wingless lupogryph, Tarcua. I had filled in the color for this piece and was at a loss as to how to shade it in, so I let it sit for a while. After getting some inspiration from oil pointing and doing some practice with digital painting using some similar techniques, I was able to finish this piece. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I plan on using this picture for Tarcua's CCG card. This was done completely in Krita on my Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet.

Hiatuseses

With the baby on the way I haven't had much energy or creativity, so apologize for the long break between the last post and this one. There's only a few weeks to go, so this may be my last post for another long while.

I've done some writing and reading over manuscript material. I thought I knew what my priorities were with projects, but I've found myself a bit at a loss on which one I've really wanted to work on. It's something I need to think about. What would be really wonderful is if I had enough mental energy to work on more than one project like I did before the pregnancy, and even for a while before that. Bbbbbbbbbbb.........

Here's some art, a concept of the castle Vartun from the Chronicles of Libera series. Done in Krita.

Free ebook, last day

I'm sorry for the delay in posting links to the newly published Incarnate Memory; I didn't remember to release the books until the night of the 17th. I was out of town and things were a little crazy and I totally spaced it.  However, the ebook version will be free all the rest of today on Lulu, so please take advantage of that. Incarnate Memory is also available on Createspace and Amazon.

For the hard copy, I encourage my readers to buy directly from Createspace rather than Amazon, as it helps me royalty-wise. They're the same price on both sites. After today, the ebook version will be $4.99 on Lulu.

Meanwhile, I've jumped back into writing In Chaos Forged, and I can tell how much my writing style has developed since I put the project aside. I'm both daunted and excited to continue writing this story!

Incarnate Memory Release Date - April 17, 2017

After months of revision and editing, Book III of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Memory is ready for release! Get ready for the adventure on Monday, April 17. I will first release it on the Createspace store, and within the next few days thereafter it will be available on Amazon. It will be $13.99.  The ebook will be available on Lulu.com for free Monday through Wednesday, 4/17-4/19.

Finishing up this project has been a huge relief for me. Though I enjoy the revision process, it can be mentally and emotionally tolling, and with my energy already low during my pregnancy, it's been the only thing I could truly focus my remaining creative energies on without fraying my nerves. Now that it's finally ready for print, I can move on to other projects, particularly Hammer of Fire.

Covered in Mud

I got my proof copy of Incarnate Memory last week and have been reading through it for errors.  I've found many that need some correction. I also need to modify the colors on the cover so they don't print so dark!

I had been pushing to get this published by the end of March, but now I'm going for the end of April. I don't have an exact date yet.

However, to whet your appetite, I'll offer the book summary and a short excerpt from Incarnate Memory for you to enjoy!

Synopsis

After spending five years in Adajerre on the gods' errand, and driven by a sacred oath, Sabra turns her attention to the northern province of Urak, where she knows someone that might shed light on the trade of elven flesh in the White Seas.  After she is reunited with her friends Deborah and Tarcua, she learns that youth from the Lunar Temple have been stolen into possible slavery, sharpening her determination to learn the truth.  With the help of a former enemy, Sabra, Tarcua, and Deborah set out to find a fortress inhabtted by a people who can give Sabra the answers she seeks.  However, their knowledge will come at a brutal price that will test the limits of Sabra's strength and patience. And if that were not enough, the scars left by the Golden One have awoken into a terrible curse that induces memories to become painful reality.

Xenta Di'curio is one of those stolen from his home in Hakor and forced into a massive mining operation overlooked by Unia'a and humans twisted by necromancy. There he meets Caemorr, a young woman not much older than him, and though they are forced to commit the unthinkable to keep each other safe, they will forge a bond that will give them the strength to survive the horrors of their sadistic masters.

With monsters forcing sentients into slavery and a Hunter curse sucking away her sanity, Sabra must learn the secrets of freeing her own spirit before she can begin to free others from nightmarish servitude. As Caemorr's only friend, Xenta will learn that the gods' love can reach into the darkest of places and that hope in Their power is priceless.

Cover Art Fun

Today I really pushed myself to get Book III of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Memory submitted for review on Createspace, and in doing so completed the back cover art and the one-piece cover PDF.

This back cover art was really fun to do. I originally sketched out the concept in my sketchbook, and then sketched it again in Krita.  I wanted to do the whole piece in Krita, but Krita seems to be limited on how to apply gradients, so I moved the painting over to GIMP and it worked out really well. I didn't know painting mountains could be so fun and satisfying. I purposely left a lot of space in the upper part of the painting for the book summary, and of course the palette is green to match the cover.


I also stumbled across one of my concepts for Book III's front cover art that I never shared. I think one of the reasons I scrapped it was because the lighting of the picture wouldn't have worked out well with the book titles, and I didn't think Sabra featured prominently enough in this piece. That, and she's supposed to be wearing her armor Adel in this scene but I drew her in a tunic instead. Not sure what was going on there. This might be a fun piece to go back to and re-do, though. We'll see.

Once the book review is done I'll order a proof copy to make sure it's suitable for sale. I am so excited to get this book released . . . and relieved in a way as well. I'll get to move on to other projects! As I've mentioned before, I'll be jumping into In Chaos Forged again, and I'm excited to apply the new writing skills I've acquired during Incarnate Memory's revision to the raw drafting process.

Everyone have a good evening.

ALMOST THERE

I've finished the 2nd edit of Incarnate Memory and am doing a last digital read-through before formatting the manuscript for publication.  I plan on buying a proof copy before making it publicly available on Createspace. The goal is to publish this book by the end of March.

I made a check-list of what I need to do to get the manuscript put together, and I've completed a couple of things. One of them is the official map (aside from the Libera world map). I'm grateful for how this map turned out, and I'm glad it's not complex as some of my other maps.

I still need to do the back cover art, and I think I have a good concept, I just need to draw it on the computer. It involves mountains. I love mountains.

Pregnancy has been more forgiving for me lately. My morning/all-day sickness has tapered off quite a bit, and I've been exercising more and eating healthier. The warmer weather has been a joy, and we've spent a lot of time in the sun this past week. Hopefully with more energy I'll have more energy to write again, especially in Hammer of Fire, and more energy to draw. It's been exasperating not doing my hobbies as often as I'd like, especially the more physical ones (like archery 😭), but I'll get back into them.

The Brink

Another art piece! Amazing what inspiration you can sometimes find when you're bored.

The first version I started and never finished.

This is a piece that I tried to do once before, but it fell flat. I wanted to capture the inner torture my character Sabra experiences towards the start of Book I of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Journey. I focused a lot on her movement and body position in this piece. I used a brush in Krita that I'm assuming is intended for inking, and this particular brush helped give Sabra a sharp, messy feel while giving stark contrasts between light and shadow.

In Incarnate Journey Sabra experiences a dream where she's in a canyon of black cliffs, above her a red sky, and she encounters people that have suffered because of her, directly or indirectly, so that was the backdrop of this piece. I didn't get any other characters in, but that's okay. I'm happy with how the cliffs and the wind-blown, red dust behind her turned out.

This piece was done in Krita.

As far as writing updates go, I'm still editing Book III of LI and am getting into the last third of the book. I want to go through it one more time for grammatical/punctuation errors before formatting and ordering a proof copy. I also need to finish preparing the cover art and design. After Book III is published I want to jump back into Hammer of Fire and get Book 1 drafted before I go back to Legacy Incarnate. I don't have plans for The Legend of Draconite this year, but hopefully next year!

Book Review: King's Blood

So I'm sorry I lied about no longer posting book reviews on Xenithar's Lair, but I believe I need to keep posting my reviews on this site to remain in the book reviewer program for Bethany House, as this is the site that has all original followers they are aware of.  I"ll probably be doing it for another publishing house that I need to reconnect to. However, I'll keep posting them to Silver Dragon Reviews, as well as Goodreads. On to the review! (And spoilers ahead.)

Slightly Crazy

This is a character from the upcoming Incarnate Memory. I decided to showcase a bit of her crazier side. Feels good to have gotten a digital piece done, it's been a while!

Deep POV Edit Session

Yesterday I recorded an editing session exploring things I learned from the Rivet Your Readers book by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. I had to try a few times to get Screencastify to work on this computer, so these videos aren't as in-depth as the first recordings I attempted. I hope you enjoy them anyway :) Sorry if the volume is a little loud, I tried to turn the microphone volume down before recording these.

Some Disclosure

I don't talk a lot about personal stuff on my blog, mostly because there's weird people out on the Internet like stalkers and such, but I feel a need to explain why I haven't done a lot of updating on here.

I'm pregnant! And while that's exciting news, let me tell you, pregnancy for me is not fun. I deal with a lot of morning, afternoon, and evening sickness, along with a serious lack of energy and motivation. I actually quit my job because I couldn't stand how sick I was feeling, being on my feet so much (and I love having a labor intensive job ☹). Sitting at our desktop computer for a lengthy time is a real challenge for my stomach, so I've done a lot of my book work on laptops. The cold weather has been terrible to my nausea too; my whole body will punish me for sudden temperature changes outdoor to indoor and shower times, and I've almost fainted a few times. What is hygiene again?

While being so sick drained most of my motivation and energy for doing just about anything, I've gotten off my antidepressant for the remainder of the pregnancy for the baby's sake, and that's just about done it for me. It's an awful thing not feeling any real excitement for anything, even my writing and editing. I still love doing it, but -- it's really hard to describe unless you've experienced clinical depression. It's like wanting to do it but not do it all at the same time.

However, I've been pretty regular about my editing lately; I'm on the 2nd edit of Incarnate Memory, which is exciting. It's going pretty fast. I tried to make a few editing videos for this post showing what I've learned from Rivet Your Readers that I mentioned in my last post, but I had technological issues. Hopefully my next post will have them once I have access to my hubby's new laptop.

Thank goodness for nausea medication, which has been a huge help. I'm sorry to dump all this onto my readers, but I hope my lack of news on Xenithar's Lair makes more sense now.

Writing Deeper

For Christmas my hubby gave me this wonderful book called Rivet your Readers with Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. It's already majorly changed the way I edit and write.

Jill's focus on the book is using your narrative and characters to show rather than tell, and to keep the narrative voice out of the way when it comes to the story and character experiences. In all my years of writing I've developed bad habits along with the good ones, and writing "deep" POV was never one of my strong points.  Occasionally I would write deep POV and not realize it, but much of my prose, even after editing, involved a lot of telling and mundane narrative.

There's a lot to say about this book, but this isn't a book review. The easiest way to sum up what this book says is to write characters how you think to yourself.  Look around you.  Do you think to yourself, "I see this computer and how white the Blogger screen is"? No, you'd think "the white screen blared at me, as if berating me for not updating for over a month." I already see it, so only the description matters.

Sorry if that didn't make sense; it's hard to explain without throwing examples in, but I was thinking of saving that for an editing video on Book III of LI. This post is really about my relationship with my characters and how Jill's book has affected us.